Morey
Contradicts Himself

Let us consider a passage from pages 11-12 of
Morey's book:

Muhammad was raised in the religion of the
Moon-god Allah. But he went one step further than his fellow pagan Arabs. While they
believed that Allah, i.e. the Moon-god, was the greatest of all the gods and the supreme
deity in a pantheon of deities, Muhammad decided that Allah was not only the greatest god
but the only god.In effect he said,
"Look, you already believe that the Moon-god Allah is the greatest of all gods. All I
want you to do is to accept that the idea that he is the
only god(sic). I am not taking away the Allah you already worship. I am only taking
away his wife and his daughters and all the other gods."This is seen from the fact that the first point of the
Muslim creed is not, "Allah is great" but "Allah is the greatest,"
i.e., he is the greatest among the gods.Why
would Muhammad say that Allah in the "greatest" except in a polytheistic
context? The Arabic word is used to contrast the greater from the lesser (Morey pp.
11-12).

The first problem with this
passage is that Morey contradicts himself. In the first two paragraphs he claimed that the
pagan Arabs believed Allah to be the greatest of all the gods, and all Muhammad (pbuh)
preached to them was that they should take Allah not merely as the greatest god but as the
only god. Then Morey forgot what he just finished writing and wrote in the very next
paragraph that Muhammad was preaching that Allah is the greatest. And, according to Morey,
greatest means he is not the only god.

A second problem is that Morey
seems to have not the slightest idea of what Islam is. According to him the first point of
the Muslim creed is not, "Allah is great" but "Allah is the greatest"
(Morey p. 12). Where did he learn that this is the first point of the Muslim creed? If
Morey is to be believed, millions of Muslims have been teaching their children the wrong
shahadah (testimony of faith).But, much to
Morey's shame, the first point of the Muslim creed is not that "Allah is the
greatest," but that "there is no god except Allah."

A third problem is that Morey
thinks "Allah is the greatest" means that "he is the greatest among the
gods" and that this could only be said in a polytheistic context. He does not realize
that the phrase he is referring to is, in Arabic, Allahu Akbar which means "Allah is
greater." This phrase is a shorter form of Allahu Akbaru min kulli shay' which means
"Allah is greater than everything." You do not need a polytheistic context to
say this. This can be said to anyone in any situation. It means that Allah is greater than
everything whether things we perceive or things we do not.

A fourth problem has to do not
with Morey's ignorance of the Arabic language, but with his lack of care to use proper reasoning. According to him, if
the first point of the Muslim creed was "Allah is great" this would not imply a
polytheistic context. Does he think that polytheists are excluded from saying about any
one of their gods, "she is great"?

A fifth problem is that Morey
keeps repeating the phrase Moon-god every time he mentions Allah as if by sheer repetition
he hopes to convince his readers that Allah is the Moon-god. What he ought to do is
present evidence instead.